Seats

ABSTRACT

A SEAT COMPRISES A SEATING AND A BACK INTERCONNECTED BY AN UPRIGHT WHICH AT ONE END SUPPORTS THE BACK AND AT THE OTHER END IS SLIDABLY MOUNTED IN AN INVERTED CHANNEL SHAPED PLATE AND IS CONNECTED BY COUPLING MEANS TO AN ADJUSTMENT LEVER PIVOTALLY MOUNTED ON THE PLATE.

R. MOURGUE SEATS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed April 19, 1971 R. MOURGUE mmh I13, 1973 SEATS 2 Sheets-Sheet 5;

Fnled April 19, 1971 United States Patent O SEATS Roger Mourgue, `Ioinville-le-Pont, France, assignor to Modern'Tube Societe Anonyme, Montreuil, Seine, Saint Denis, France Filed Apr. 19, 1971, Ser. No. 135,010 Claims priority, application France, Apr. 27, 1970, 7015247 Int. Cl. A47c 3/24 U.S. Cl. 297--383 9 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A seat comprises a seating and a back interconnected by an upright which at one end supports the back and at the other end is slidably mounted in an inverted channel shaped plate and is connected by coupling means to an adjustment lever pivotally mounted on the plate.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the invention The present invention relates generally to a seat of the type currently used as working seats in typists or similar oliices.

(2) Description of the prior art It is known to provide such oices with seats of which the seating is adjustable in height, and/or the distance of the back is adjustable from the seating, i.e. the axis of the seating in the case of a swivel seating.

With particular regard to the adjustment of the height of the seating, a seat of this type generally has a seating support member which is adjustably mounted for height in a base under the control of a clamping handle, the end of the handle acting directly upon the seating support member.

With regard to the distance adjustment of the back of such a seat, said adjustment is, generally, obtained by a button-hole mounting controlled by a control handle which is placed under the seating of the seat and the operation of which is relatively awkward.

SUMMARY According to the invention a seat comprises a seating, a back, a plate supporting said seating and xed to a seating support member, said back being adjustable in terms of distance in relation to said seating support member, and an upright at one end supporting said back and having its opposite end slidably mounted in the seating support plateand connected by coupling means to an adjustment lever pivotally mounted on said plate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS ,FIG. 1 is a perspective View, partly cut-away, of, by way of example, a typists seat,

FIG. 2 is, on a larger scale, an axial cross-section view of the base of the seat shown in FIG. 1 and of the associated adjustment mechanisms, along line II-II in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of some of the parts of the seat shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a perspective View of the plate which supports the seating of the seat shown in FIG. 1 and the upright o-f the back of the seat, and

FIG. 5 is a partial view similar to FIG. 4 and relates to an alternative embodiment of seat.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings, a Seat comprises a base formed of four legs 11, regularly distributed around a 3,720,443 Patented Mar. 13, 1973 ICC central vertical base tube 12, a pivot tube 13 engaged in the base tube 12, a seating support tube 14 adjustable in height in the pivot tube 13, a seating support plate 15, a seating 16 fixed to the said plate 15, and a back 17 supported by an upright 18 slidably mounted in the seating support plate 15.

In a manner known per se, and as is best seen in FIG. 2 the pivot tube 13 is mounted so as to rotate in the base tube 12 and ax-ially mobile in -said base tube 12 against a damper spring 20. Said spring 20 is placed between a cupring 21 fixed inside the base tube 12, at the lower end of said tube, and a second cup-ring 21 freely arranged in the annular space which exists between the base tube 12 and the pivot tube 13 in the vicinity of the upper end of the base tube 12. This second cup-ring supports a ball thrust bearing 22 against which the pivot tube 13 rests, through a circlip 23 and a thrust-ring 24. The pivo-t tube 13 is guided axially in the base tube 12, on the one hand, by the cup-ring 21, at the lower end of the base tube 12 and, on the other hand, by a guide ring 25, at the top end of the base tube. In addition, the upward movement of the pivot tube 13 is limited by a thrust washer 26 which co-operates with the lower cup-ring 21 and which is held by a circlip 27.

As will be better seen in FIG. 3, the upper end of the pivot tube 13 has an open ended notch 30 and is surrounded by a collar 31 mounted thereon by, for example, welding, the collar having, facing said notch, an inner recess 32.

Referring especially to FIG. 2, this recess 32 constitutes a housing closed at its lower end by the closed lower end 33 of the notch 30 of the pivot tube 13, and at its upper end by a circlip 34. In this housing there is arranged a cylindrical roller 36 extending vertically and able to be applied against the seating support tube 14 by a clamping handle 40 of which a threaded end 41 is screwed into a threaded hole 42 in a radially extending boss 43 of the collar 31.

In accordance with this embodiment the seating support tube 14 has longitudinally, along a portion of its height, a channel 45 in which the roller 36 bears; in a manner known per se this channel 45 has a certain degree of inclination longitudinally (see FIG. 2).

The seating support plate 15 includes a sole-plate 46 the two short ends of which are raised to form wings 47 used to secure the seating 16. On its bottom surface the sole-plate 46 has a strap 48 through which passes the seating support tube 14. Said strap 48` may be fixed to the tube 14 by, for example, welding.

On its upper surface, the sole-plate 46 of the seating support plate bears an omega-shaped or upturned channel member 50 having a side notch 51. The upright 18 of the back 17 of the seat is slidably mounted in this member 50.

This upright 18 which, in this embodiment, is of at cross-section has, between the back 17 and the seating 16, an elbow 55 (see FIG. l) having the general appearance of a semi-circle and, as shown in FIG. 4, forms a toothed rack 56 at the position of the notch 51 in the member 50 in which the upright 18 is engaged. Facing this notch there is a toothed segment 60, which is pivotably mounted at 61 to the seating support plate under the control of an adjustment lever 62, which engages the toothed rack 56 of the back upright 1S.

As will be easily understood, the adjustment in height of the seating 16 ofthe seat, which is advantageously a swivelling seat, is etfected by loosening the handle 40, and then causing the seating support tube 14 to slide or move axially according to the desired adjustment in height. It will then be suicient to tighten the handle 40 again. Because of the roller 36, which distributes advantageously the clamping pressure over an appreciable length of the seating support tube 14, no swaging of the tube 14 is to be feared.

The adjustment in height of the back 17 in relation to the seating support tube 14 is eiected by operating the adjustment lever 62 which controls the toothed rack of the back upright 18. Other than during adjustment periods, the position of the seat 17 remains stable, in view of the reversing effect which a leaning action upon the back applies to the toothed rack 56, which reversing effect causes a locking of said toothed rack. The elbow 55 of the upright 18 advantageously imparts to said upright the necessary resilience for this purpose. Friction means are, in addition, associated with the toothed sector 60 to oppose too great an ease of reversibility of control of the latter.

It will be appreciated that the clamping handle 40 and the adjustment lever 62 are easily accessible, even for a seated person; they are both under the seating 116 of the seat and project laterally, on the same side of the seating plate.

As shown in FIG. 4, the coupling means which conneet the sliding end of the back upright 18 to its adjustment lever 62, include a toothed rack.

According to another embodiment shown diagrammatiically in FIG. 5, these coupling means include a peg 70 which is supported by the sliding end of the upright 18 and passes through a guiding aperture 71, formed in the omega-shaped part 50 of the seating support plate 15, and which peg is in engagement with a fork 72 integral with the adjustment lever 62 which is, as before, pivotably mounted at 61 on the seating support plate 15.

According to a further embodiment similar to that shown in FIG. 5, a fork comparable with the fork 72 is formed by two pegs similar to peg 70 and supported by the upright 18, the end of the lever 62 being in engagement with these pegs and passing between them.

Naturally, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, particularly as regards the nature and the conguration of the pressure distributor pad interposed between the seating support tube 14 and its clamping handle 40. This pressure distributor pad could, for example, be a ball, or conform to the shape of the tube 14, and/or be made in any suitable synthetic material.

I claim:

1. A seat comprising a seating, a back, a plate supportthe adjustment lever and which engages with the said toothed rack.

3. A seat according to claim 1, wherein the coupling means have a fork integral with one of the back upright and adjusting lever parts, and a peg which is integral with the other of these parts and which is in engagement with the said fork.

4. A scat according to claim 1, wherein the back upright has been the back and said coupling means, an elbow with the general appearance of a semi-circle.

5. A seat according to claim 1, wherein the adjustment lever is arranged under the seating and projects laterally in relation to the seating plate.

6. A seat according to claim 1, wherein the seating support member is adjustably mounted for height in a base, under the control of a clamping handle, this clamping handle and the adjustment lever both being arranged under the seating, adjoining each other, and on the same side in relation to the seating plate.

7. A seat according to claim 1, wherein the seating support upright is a tube pivotably mounted in a base and axially movable relatively to the base against resilient means.

8. A seat comprising a seating, a back, means supporting said seating, an upright having one end supporting said back, the end of said upright remote from said back extending generally horizontally forwardly, means mounting said remote end of said upright for generally horizontal sliding movement in said seating supporting means, and a lever pivotally mounted on said seating supporting means and connected to said remote end of said upright so that swinging movement of said lever in one direction slides said remote end generally horizontally forwardly to move said back forward and swinging movement of said lever in the other direction moves said remote end generally horizontally rearwardly to move said back rearwardly.

9. A seat according to claim 8, and means mounting said lever for horizontal swinging movement about an upright axis intermediate the ends of said lever with one end of said lever projecting as a handle for manipulation of said lever and the other end of said lever connected to said remote end of said upright.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,678,681 5/1954 Haltenberger 297-333 X 2,730,162 l/1956 Davis 297-383 X 3,434,756 3/1969 Walkinshaw 297-300 264,397 9/1882 Woodward 297-383 X FOREIGN PATENTS 783,800 3/1955 Great Britain 297-383 r JAMES T. MCCALL, Primary Examiner U.S. C1. X.R. 297-346, 353 

